So What If It's Your Life
by lunartick
Summary: Oneshot. Can be considered a sequel to It's My Life, but can stand on it's own. Yet again, Shinrei suffers for being Keikoku's brother. More stupidity involved than is ever possible. Please Read and Review!


Hi people, I'm back with another Shinrei and Keikoku story because I got some requests for it. Personally, I don't think it is as good as my previous one, but still RandR, please! This can stand on it's own, or can be considered a Sequel to "It's My Life".

**So What If It's Your Life?**

Hotaru hated early morning trainings. For one, it interrupted his essential fifteen hours of sleep. For another, it meant getting up early like Shinrei always did. For last, it meant facing Shinrei early in the morning.

He didn't know what others with no biasness against Shinrei thought of it, but facing a ranting, self-righteous, stringently legal man early in the morning meant nothing but hell to him. For him, going through the fires of hell would be a much welcomed alternative.

Of course, that was because he hated water.

Anyway, today was no different from all the rest. He was safely snuggled up in his bed with his sword and his favourite blanket even as the other Goyousei members began their training.

It was also no different when Shinrei burst into his room, a bucket of ice cold water scooped fresh from the garden pond in hand.

"Good morning, Keikoku!" Shinrei roared without a hint of geniality, and dumped the water over him.

Generally, Keikoku was used to such treatment from his brother, and could sometimes fall asleep even when soaking wet – but today's water had been extra cold due to the fact that it was winter.

He jumped out of bed immediately, his sword already drawn. "… Oh… good morning, Shinrei."

Shinrei dropped the bucket on the ground. "You pathetic over-sleeper!" were his welcoming words, "Do I really have to go through the whole ritual of waking you up with a bucket of water every single morning?"

"You could have just let me sleep you know?"

"No, I don't! Your training is…"

"Kami-sama, if you stop Shinrei from continuing," Hotaru mumbled sleepily, "I vow to devote the rest of my life to celibacy."

"You what?" Shinrei roared, leaping over the bucket to grab Hotaru's arm, "It is your responsibility as a respectable warrior to continue your bloodline in order to create more great Mibu warriors to defend the Mibu clan! How dare you…"

"Oh, does that mean you think I'm a great warrior?"

"A great warrior with no brains!"

"I do have brains…"

"Oh yeah? Yuan-sama told me you didn't, so you don't!"

"… Yuan?"

Shinrei groaned miserably. "Just go for training, you imbecile! I'm missing mine because of you."

"That's not my fault."

"Oh, that's what you think …. Oh no… don't start it again, please! Nowadays, I spend half my day writing apology letters to Fubuki-sama for missing training."

"He makes you write apology letters when you miss?"

"No. I do it myself without being told. It's called self-discipline, but I doubt that you know what that means."

"Do too. I make sure I get at least fifteen hours of uninterrupted sleep everyday. That takes self-discipline."

Shinrei groaned again and glanced fearfully at the time machine (named aptly "tick-tock") in the room. "Hurry… hurry… go for training and I swear I'll make sure the imperial kitchen cooks your favourite meal for lunch today."

"Ok. You promised."

"Good. Good. Thank kami-sama."

"Then I'm off. Bye."

"Wait! Wait! Keikoku!" Shinrei leapt hurriedly after his half-brother who was already half-way out the door. "Keikoku! Don't go out without any clothes on!"

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Hishigi bent over his laboratory table, staring intently via a microscope at a single cell. He had every intention of studying this particular cell taken out of a particular person with particular powers created particularly for a particular reason to the fullest extent. It took hours, sometimes even days just to isolate one single cell. This one had taken exactly six hours, forty-two minutes, thirty-seven seconds, ninety-nine milliseconds and eight thousand mibu-seconds.

As he stared, the cell seemed to shrink then suddenly, it solidified and turned to dust.

Face blank, Hishigi straightened up and cursed the day he installed the "evil eyes" into his body. Single cells could wilt away even when his "eyes" were covered. This was a fact he especially dreaded Fubuki and the rest of the Taishirou finding out. Of course, technically they should thank him as it made the exfoliating of dead skin unnecessary… but he knew Tokito took great delights in doing things that made her feel feminine. Not to mention the fact that it was the cause of the thin layer of powder that surrounded the people he regularly came into contact with.

There was a long bang behind him and he half turned slightly, his hand coming to rest lightly on the hilt of his sword.

"Ah…" the person behind him mumbled, and Hishigi stared while trying to appear that he was not staring.

"What is it that you want?"

"…"

"…"

"Who are you?"

Hishigi tilted his head again. There were not many people in Mibu who could not recognize him. This confirmed the identity of the intruder. "What do you want, Keikoku?"

"I was looking for…"

"…For?"

"For… well… he's this tall and this wide… and oh… he has hair like this and… his ears are kind of like this and his nose is kind of like this and his eyes… oh wait… I've never seen his eyes before so… but I think they would look something like this because he's always laughing and…"

"Yuan's territory is below, Keikoku. Go out of the room, turn left and go down the nearest staircase."

"Oh. Ok. Thank you."

With the intruder gone, Hishigi turned back to his work, sinking blissfully back into the silence. The cell was a lost cause, but he could still afford to extract one more… just one more from the dead body. This time, maybe he would try wearing a metal mask… hopefully it could deflect the magnetic particles and…

"Excuse me."

Hishigi turned around again, irritated to find the Goyousei member still there. "What is it, Keikoku?"

Hotaru tilted his head. "What was it that I'm supposed to be doing again?"

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Yuan laughed. He laughed for hours, sometimes even days. Today, he felt he could go on forever.

"I've… I've never seen Hishigi look so… so…" Yuan bent over and chortled, "so pissed! What did you do to him, my dear beloved disciple?"

Hotaru stood in the middle of the dojo, staring blankly at Yuan. "Well… I asked him to show me the way down… but I kept walking in a circle back to his room… so…"

Yuan burst out laughing again, remembering the sight of Hishigi in a lab coat, storming into his dojo with Keikoku trailing nonchalantly behind him. "Oh, that was rich! So rich! I am so blessed, thank the great Buddha above! I know I earned it by taking in this pathetic boy for a disciple, but thank you anyway."

"I'm not a…" Hotaru was forced to break off when Yuan slung a friendly arm around his shoulders.

"Of course not; you've proven it. Not even Tokito could irritate Hishigi this much!" Yuan collapsed into a bend, still laughing merrily. Still choking, he mimicked, "He's distracting me from turning my cells to stone… observing… turning… Never mind. Next time, send him a guide dog." Yuan burst into laughter again, rolling around on the floor like a dog on high.

"Ok… so… what am I doing here again?"

Finally, Yuan managed to straighten up. "Training. When was the last time I saw you turn up for morning training?"

"…"

"I wasn't asking for an answer."

"Oh. Ok. Oh yeah… I remembered. Shinrei bribed me with lunch."

"Lunch? You abandoned your principles of never turning up for morning training for lunch? My, my, what a poor samurai you would make."

"Oh… ok."

Jumping nimbly to his feet, Yuan stretched. "Ok, Keikoku. Today's training is going to be tough. Let's rumble."

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"You owe me more than lunch."

Puzzled, Shinrei lifted his head from his technique manual to stare at the figure next to him. "What do you mean, Keikoku?"

"You owe me more than lunch."

"Lunch was the promise, Keikoku. You must learn to keep to your promises."

"You owe me." Keikoku sat down.

Shinrei listened in amazement to the pops and cracks that sounded as his half-brother lowered himself into a cross-legged position. "What on earth did Yuan-sama do to you?"

"He said I was lousy for abandoning my principles for lunch, so he forced me to duel him… not that it needed much forcing… and the rest… well… all I can say is that in today's training, I've seen Yuan's fist in front of my nose from at least fifty different angles."

Shinrei snorted. "He was probably punishing you for skipping morning training so much."

"Oh… no, I don't think so. He said that was for afternoon training. Morning training was for punishing me for turning up for morning training."

For a long time, Shinrei thought that over, but since it didn't fit with his view of life, he conveniently discarded it. "Anyway, what has that got to do with me owing you more of lunch or something?"

"Lunch couldn't make up for the punishment I had to go through today."

"That is not…" Shinrei looked at his half-brother's nose curiously. It was leaking a liquid he couldn't quite identify. "That is not a… well…" The liquid ran unobstructed down the chin. "That is…" It dripped onto the floor and burnt a hole in it. "What is that?"

"Eh?" Hotaru raised a hand to his chin and wiped it unabashedly. "Oh… that's what makes me a fire-user."

"…"

"What?"

"That's just plain gross. As a water-user, all I need is ice-cubes in my cranial cavity."

"Ah… you're on ice."

"…"

"That was a joke."

"Not a very funny one."

"Was to."

"Was not."

"Was to... you owe me more than lunch."

"Fine," Shinrei relented as another hole was burnt in his floor, "What do you want?"

"…"

"Since you're demanding for more, I assume you have something you want in mind?"

"…"

"…"

"… I thought you would have something in mind, Shinrei."

"Kami-sama."

"Oh wait…"

"What?"

"I know what I want."

Shinrei stared curiously as Hotaru leapt to his feet, and something that looked vaguely like a smile (but couldn't be a smile because Keikoku never smiled) spread over his face. "What is it?" he asked apprehensively.

And Hotaru told him.

And Shinrei ran screaming from the room.

And Hishigi got even angrier at having to chase both brothers out of his laboratory.

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"This is illegal."

"You owed me."

"This is immoral."

"You still owe me."

"This is downright wrong."

"But you still owe me."

Shinrei groaned as he crouched outside the room, his props in hand. "Keikoku… I swear to hell I don't know why I even have to do this!" he protested, "It isn't fair! Lunch was the deal."

Keikoku squatted behind him, munching on said lunch. "Well... I know. But if you don't do it, I'll tell Saisei about the crush you once had on her."

Shinrei groaned again. "Don't make me do this," he begged, "I refuse to this. You can tell Saisei all about it, and I don't give a damn! Just don't make me do this."

"Why not?"

"It's my life," Shinrei protested, his mind jumping on the one excuse Keikoku loved to use, "It's my life, and I refuse to spend it doing this."

"Fair enough," Keikoku admitted, "but then there's still that time when you had a crush on _Saishi_."

"Kami-sama… how the hell did you find out? That was like a two second crush… you can't…"

"And you actually have a Fubuki plushy that you…"

"Enough!" Shinrei glared at him, "I don't care what you say! It's my life, it's my life, it's my life!"

"True," Hotaru conceded again, "but, so what if it's your life?"

Shinrei moaned and picked up the props again, his head hung in defeat. "I hate you, Keikoku."

"Ah, and the feeling is mutual."

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Fubuki looked up as the door to his room was slid opened. Upon seeing his disciple standing there, he put his book neatly on the table and asked, "What is it, Shinrei?" He looked closely again. Why was his disciple's face so red?

Then to his amazement, his stern, stoic, quiet disciple slid on a pair of sunglasses and stammered, "I'm so sorry, Fubuki-sama. Please don't kill me for this!" Without looking at his master, Shinrei then unrolled an official-looking document and blurted out, "By… by… by… by… popular demand, w… w… we… the Goyousei… demand that early morning trainings be banned as it causes: Saishi's failing complexion; Keikoku's lack of fifteen hours of sleep; Shinrei missing his early morning trainings; Taihaku being unable to attend his lessons at the Mibu Kindergarten; Chinmei failing to report to the Aka Ou No in the morning. This petition has been signed by all five… and… and… and… and… we demand that it be put into action."

Fubuki stared then stared even harder as a hand reached past the door and prodded Shinrei's leg, and a voice whispered, "The last part, read the last part."

Groaning miserably, Shinrei mumbled, "And we demand… demand… demand… demand… Fubuki-sama cut his hair due to it obstructing corridor space and being a hazard when walking past him."

By then, the expression on Fubuki's face was very much akin to that of a goldfish. "Shinrei?" was all he could manage before Shinrei dropped to his knees, blabbering something about crushes and plushies.

"Shinrei," he repeated much more firmly, "Look up." Shinrei looked up, cursing the day he conceded to Keikoku. "You demands…" He hesitated, the thoughts in his mind going into a jumble.

First and foremost, Fubuki was very aware that he needed the help of the Goyousei in order to accomplish his plans for the Mibu future. Yet… his… hair? However, if even Shinrei was on the Goyousei's side, it must mean that none of the Goyousei would comply unless he conceded first. Yet… his… hair? On the other hand, if he simply told them to back off… what could they do? Maybe… strike for a few days? Nothing important was going on the next few days, other than Kyo's invasion of Mibu… Oh… right. That counted as important. Thus, his decision had to be one that would benefit both sides. Fubuki never wished to have his black cat near him so much than at that very moment.(1)

"Ok, Shinrei," he complied, "Early morning trainings are cancelled, and I shall cut my hair."

"I'm so sorry," Shinrei mumbled, his face an unhealthy shade of red as he slowly backed out of the room, "Sorry, sorry, sorry…"

The moment the door closed, Fubuki petted his hair mournfully, as the sounds of a swordfight erupted outside along with many words that he would not have wished his daughter to hear. Vaguely, he thought he heard Yuan laughing, but he could not be sure.

"Really," he murmured, "the price I pay for protecting Mibu."

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Reference to black cat: Refer to "And Your Opinion Is?"

Author's Note: Sorry about the OCness, but I really wanted to make Shinrei do something really stupid. This was written at 1 a.m.at night after too much coffee, which might possibly explain the stupidity involved. I hoped you still enjoyed it! Oh… Review… Review… Review… Review…


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